4.5

Space ship battles are back

Let’s face it, not since the Wing commander series, or the X-Wing and Tie Fighter series of game has there been anything to appease the scratch for space battles. I mean sure there is Star Trek Online, but when it comes to space combat in small ship to ship combat there has been a huge void. No pun intended.

Jumping on into God Factory: Wingmen I was not even sure what to expect. Certainly I did not expect such a spectacular fun time as this game is. For the things it does right, it’s oh so right. I would say that the only real thing I had to frown about was waiting to get a match going. Once you choose a match, you end up having to wait for the other slots to fill up. Now this is no fault of the game design mind you…it’s just a matter of more people needing to find out what a blast the game is.

GoD Factory: Wingmen by Nine Dots Studio is a 4v4 competitive space combat game that has some replay ability right out of the gate, and to think that the designers plan on long term support with already planned content and DLC….not only paid DLC and content, but some free stuff too.

Players will enjoy the ship building in this game, there is some great room for showing their individuality in the game. Right on down to coloring their ship’s hull. Players actually can build their ship piece by piece, tinkering with the space craft’s abilities and stats and look of the ship.

Like any good design in keeping things smooth and well balanced the designers have made it so that players must balance several elements when building their spacecraft. Weight, energy consumption and heat capacity have to all be considered in the mix when building your ultimate battle space craft.

The parts that a player chooses can make the difference in a battle. Because the parts not only can make your ship different but on how it handles over all. Pieces that can be acquired while building run a wide range of parts…. From power cores and shield generators, the main computer and even the cockpit and weapons on the ship and specialty devices that can give a ship some extra surprise abilities.

All of this of course means nothing if the person controlling the craft is not balancing and using the ship to its optimum potential and abilities. Let me tell you, testing out the game I went into several battles that had been fast and furious on down to some players being sneaking and using a more stealth approach and trying to avoid ship to ship combat and going right for my carrier.

Ah yes, carriers. Of course blasting your fellow opponents into space dust is fun, but the main goal is taking out the enemy carrier. Sounds simple heh? Well these things fire back at each other too and it is not just a simple task of spending energy rounds or missiles at its hull. Player’s main goals are to attack certain key components of the carrier to whittle it down and ultimately take it out of action.

There are several key targets on a carrier, from its cannons and weapons, to things like its radio tower and on down to things like communication towers….there are more parts of course but this gives you the general idea. Plus for each part the player destroys on an enemy carrier, there is of course a negative effect on the carrier and in some cases… the enemy pilots as well.

Strategy and coordination between players is a must if one side wants to have a win. A free for all with no coordination what so ever boils more down to the luck of the draw on who eventually wins. There is nothing sweeter than a team working together to take out the enemy. It’s a beautiful thing indeed. During a battle players have to consider also that they must protect their own carrier while trying to destroy the enemy carrier. This opens up a lot of significant game playing and cleverly puts tower defense in space and makes it even more exciting.

When it comes to the handling of the ships and the action, one may feel that it leans more to arcade action, but as a flight sim and plane to plane or ship to ship combat fan, I can tell you that GoD Factory: Wingmen scratches a much needed itch in the space combat style of games.

Further enhancing the gaming experience players bring not just one, but two ships to a match. One remains docked and ready for the player if the first ship is blasted to nothing. During a match if both ships are destroyed a player can still get another ship and rejoin the battle…but now they will only be able to use drone ships. These drone ships are nowhere near as powerful as the ships the player may have spent a lot of time building. Never fear…after the match you do get your ships back.

Now while this first launch is a multiplayer extravaganza, word is that this is just a first title in this game universe. There are plans for a single player game as well…with a focus on the story. No word at this time when this will happen but keep checking back from time to time because we will be checking it out and letting you know what we think of it.

Whenever it does come out, it has an excellent multiplayer pedigree to live up to.

GoD Factory: Wingmen is a very welcome game to a genre that needed something like this to come along and bring out the love of space ship to ship battles again. Check it out on STEAM now.

Have fun, play games

Edwin Millheim

About the Author

Edwin Millheim Edwin Millheim is a freelance writer since the 1980's has worked in comic book scripting and story writing, for such magazines as Shadis magazine, Anime A2. and also has worked on role playing game creation and adventure creation in the role playing industry as a freelancer (For such companies as Hero Games ,Palladium Books Rifts Index and Adventures Vol 1 hook line and sinker story contributor) working over the years with his editor and co writer for many projects, Donna Millheim, his wife, together... wrote the "electronic games" article for Funk And Wagnalls Encyclopedia
Edwin has also worked as writer on comic adaptations to some of his writer/created role-playing games such as Bright Future (Sci Fi) and Unknown Eagles (Based in World War II), and Moonsfar: Warrior's Creed.(Sword and Sorcery)
Released Ebook on Amazon 'Unknown Eagles Special Operations" in 2014.
Edwin has worked on articles ranging from, previews, reviews and interviews, for various media over the years including magazine and internet, and pod casts, video media shows. Currently the United States Editor For www.impulsegamer.com
Over the years Edwin with his often co writers Wife Donna Millheim and Daughter Shael Millheim have written well over 400 articles and reviews and various role playing game books and game supplements.
Edwin Millheim is also an actor and stage combat stunt fighter, and has been acting in shows and productions since 1989.
Edwin has an over 22-year background in Whitelotus kungfu, a mix of northern and southern Shaolin. Bringing those skills to film and live action stunt shows was a natural thing. Over the years, he has been Cast Coordinator for interactive shows, as well as stunt and fight and action coordinator for various film projects (Sanctuary film from NiceWonderFilms) (BFF Zombie from LifePlay Productions) (Hunter X from Jab Haus)and live action stunt shows. Edwin has had many featured parts as a stunt fighter/actor, and has choreographed hundreds of hours worth of scenes over the years.